Tel Dan - Nature Paradise and Place of Worship of the Kings of Israel

Recently, I visited again the Tel Dan National Park in the far north of Israel. This national park is a true pearl of nature. When you enter the park, you feel a little like being in the Garden of Eden. The vegetation is lush, I feel like I've landed in a jungle. Small and calmly babbling brooks flow everywhere and springs gush out of the ground and form all kind of pools. It's really green and shady, even during summer. Nature lovers are absolutely rewarded here. The national park is a real little paradise.

At this site, the Dan River, the largest of the three sources of the Jordan River, has its source. The Dan Spring emerges at the foot of the Hermon Mountains. The Dan Spring is the largest of all springs in the nature reserve. It is the source with the richest water in the entire Middle East. It is fed by the snow that accumulates on Mt. Hermon every winter and trickles down to the springs at the foot of the hill. The output of the springs is an estimated 240 million m³ a year. The springs are considered to be constant, with no great changes in flow between winter and summer (unlike the springs of the Banias and Hatsbani Stream). The spring produces water at a low and steady temperature throughout the year. About 8.5 m3 of water arise from the Dan spring every second, 365 days a year. The spring water has a constantly low temperature of 14.5 ° C and is of high quality and purity.

But nature is far from all that this national park has to offer. People have been settling along these water-rich springs for around 7,000 years.

In 1966, under the direction of the archaeologist Prof. Avraham Biran, excavations were carried out and sensational finds were made. He discovered the monumental Canaanite 4000-years-old Abraham Gate, which is said to have been the gate to the Canaanite city of Laish at the time of Abraham.

This city was founded around 2700 BC and was populated by Canaanite tribes at this time. Archaeologists believe that the Abraham gate from Canaanite times is around 4000 years old. The gate was uncovered in 1979 but more recently underwent restoration. It is composed of three arches and constructed of sun-dried mud brick on a foundation of large basalt stones. The gate, which in ancient times stood seven meters tall, has been restored to its original height. It features two towers and a horizontal structure linking them below the arches, the oldest arches ever found in the Land of Israel.

According to Bible history, it could be that Patriarch Abraham on his chase, on which he sought to free his nephew Lot from his enemies, actually came as far as through this gate to Laish, (Genesis 14:14), as the city was called in biblical times.

The Canaanite city of Laish (also called Leshem) was later (12th century BCE) conquered by the Israelite tribe of Dan and was inhabited from then on by the Israelites (Judges 18: 11-31 EU). Since then, the city's name was changed to Dan. Massive parts of the city wall as well as the gate complex and market square of the ancient city of Dan as well as the cult site from the time of the Kingdom of Israel were also discovered during the excavations of Prof. Avraham Biran.

The ancient city of Dan has been important since the time of King Jeroboam I. After King Solomon's death in 928 BCE, the United Kingdom of the Israelites split into a northern Kingdom which retained the name Israel and a southern Kingdom called Judah, so named after the tribe of Judah that dominated the kingdom. King Solomon's son Rehoboam became king over the southern kingdom (the tribes of Benjamin and Judah). The ten northern tribes who had revolted against King Solomon's son proclaimed Jeroboam as king of the newly established Kingdom of Israel.

After the division of the United Kingdom, King Jeroboam turned the city of Dan into a place of worship, being a true alternative to the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to prevent the inhabitants of the northern kingdom from continuing their yearly pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to offer their sacrifices.

The High Place exposed at Dan was established by Jeroboam I, King of Israel at the end of the 10th century BCE. Jeroboam I built altars bearing a golden calf in two cities: ...he set one in Beth-el and the other he put in Dan...and the people went up to worship...even unto Dan. (1 Kings 12:29-30).

King Jeroboam feared that without building his own temple in the Northern Kingdom, he would slowly lose his influence over the Israelites in the Kingdom of Israel, and therefore he decided to establish even two cult places in his new kingdom. The sanctuary occupied an area of about 60 x 45 m. In the broad courtyard, enclosed by a wall with rooms around it, stood an altar. Today the place of the once huge altar is marked by a metal frame

The cult site in Dan is located on a High Place north of the Dan spring and was used for cultic purposes until the Roman period. The city was finally abandoned in Roman times when settlement shifted to Banias.

In 1838, Edward Robinson, American researcher and theologian, identified on a trip through Palestine Tel Dan, as the biblical city of Dan .

In later excavations under the direction of Prof. Avraham Biran in 1993/1994, the archaeological team made another sensational finding. During the uncovering of a paved square along the city gate and the city walls of the Israelite city of Dan, a black basalt block with the Tel Dan inscription was discovered. This broken basalt block, part of a basalt stele, was not immediately noticed because it was in secondary reuse to construction. This broken basalt stone was the first extra-biblical evidence that King David's dynasty really existed and was not just a Bible story. A real sensational finding!

The Tel Dan inscription, which is also called "House of David" inscription in professional circles, is an inscription in Aramaic to commemorate the victory of an Aramaic king over the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Although the name of the author does not appear on the surviving fragments of the stele, it most likely relates to a king of the neighboring state of Aram-Damascus. The language, time and place of construction make it likely that the author is Haza'el or his son Ben Hadad. The inscription in Aramaic is dated by archaeologists to the 9th or 8th century BC.

If the deciphering of this inscription is correct, it means that this inscription contains the earliest reference to the Davidic dynasty outside the Bible. Whether this inscription refers to the biblical David must remain open for the time being. However, it can be seen as an indication of the existence of a "House of David", whose territory is not mentioned in the inscription. The original Tel Dan inscription can now be seen in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.